The “official” luxury stuff I think came thru channels of the foreign ministry (Victory stores, for those other Rubles), and it seems they never did any analyses how much they’d actually need for their “internal” use. Seems like vast amounts were imported but sold into the shadow economy by officials, plus probably by the KPSS itself, since the overflow often found its way into regular stores. The officers corps was also always taken care of with western goodies.

Yugoslavia was a popular source for western goods, I’ve heard. And interestingly also China, I presume via Hong Kong/Canton.